Double Coconut Banana Bread

October 19, 2012

At home I seem to be the only one who eats bananas. I don’t know how the rest of the family survives without them but to me the mornings just aren’t right without something oaty, the essential ingredient not being the oats but rather the banana. Sometimes I eat bananas in the afternoon before going for a run with some nut butter drizzled on top. So really bananas are a staple for me. Luckily, my mom knows that they are my go-to oatmeal add-in so whenever I come home over the weekend I can count on the fruit basket being filled up with fresh bananas just for me; in very seldom cases however I find nearly blackened bananas that I probably forgot to eat during my last visit and which make the perfect bananas for banana bread.

Whenever I eat banana bread it makes me think of my elementary school cafeteria in Indonesia. Unfortunately I have forgotten so much of my childhood there already but I doubt I will ever forget the wonderful taste of the thick slathers of banana bread. I don’t know how they did it, but the bread seemed to be juicy and moist and so flavorful that I would buy a piece nearly every day at recess even though I got a packed lunch from home. Now, whenever I make banana bread I try to achieve the exact same taste as the one from school.

Though, I must admit that this Double Coconut Banana Bread does not taste quite like the banana bread I used to eat, the coconut elements add a certain something to the whole experience. Instead of butter or canola oil I used coconut oil and for an extra portion of healthy fats I added some desiccated coconut into the batter just before transferring it to to the cake tin.

Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease a tube pan {I used a silicone pan}

In a bowl sift together the flours, baking powder, salt and shredded coconut and cinnamon. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, in a separate bowl beat the coconut oil and the brown sugar for about 3 minutes. Then add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat for another 5 minutes.

Stir in the mashed banana and Greek yogurt and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 50 minutes.

I served the banana bread along side oatmeal for our girls breakfast in Munich two weekends ago and had some with nut butter in the afternoons. The original plan was to serve it with a drizzle of home-made coconut butter on top but that didn’t go so well. Making coconut butter is harder than you would assume! So, powdered sugar just had to do the job.

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7 Comments

I love baking with coconut oil; this sounds like a really tasty version of banana bread even if it’s not quite the banana bread of your childhood. But hey, that’s just an excuse for making more isn’t it!